Progress toward terabit-rate high-density recording

Sep 21, 2010

Research is closing in on the next-generation of ultra-high-density magneto-optical storage devices that could store more than 6,000 Terabits (6 petabits) of data, more than 70 times the contents of the entire U.S. Library of Congress, on a single 5-inch disc. Yet the vast storage amount is limited by the ability to write data quickly enough to the device.

In the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers at Sun Yat-Sen University in China have demonstrated a way to record on ferromagnetic films using a laser-assisted ultrafast magnetization reversal dynamics.

The technique uses so-called time-resolved polar Kerr spectroscopy combined with an alternating magnetic field strong enough to re-initialize the magnetization state of gadolinium-iron-cobalt (GdFeCo) thin films. Tianshu Lai and colleagues showed that the magnetization reversal could occur in a sub-nanosecond time scale, which implies that next- generation magneto-optical storage devices can not only realize higher recording densities but also ultrafast data writing of up to a gigahertz. Such speed is at least thirty times faster than that of present hard disks in computers.

Laser-assisted magnetic recording was demonstrated on a sub-picosecond time scale under a saturated external magnetic field. "We found that the rate of magnetization reversal is proportional to the external magnetic field," says Lai, "and the genuine thermo-magnetic recording should happen within several tens to hundreds of picoseconds when we apply a smaller magnetic field than the coercivity of the recording films."

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@gwrede:I would hardly call it a disgrace. The internet changed the game by making digital information so easy to copy and distribute. It was inevitable that our hdds would be full of video content - video files take up the most space!

Although if you are more upset about the "stolen" aspect of this, as opposed to the wasting of our hard drive space... well... too bad.

Although stealing is wrong and I rarely watch movies anyway, actors and actresses make too much money anyway. It's just like athelets. It's a joke that a circus clown makes more money than an engineer.

Sour grapes aside I had a 1TB HD fail about 3 months ago and a 500GB fail 7 months before that. My 1TB HD was 3/4 full it had taken me nearly 6 months to fill it to that level. I am more interested in making the HDD more reliable than HD's having more capacity right now.

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